Week Twelve Wrap-Up

Bible: Last week we read through the end bit of Ephesians, started and finished Colossians, and this week we are at the beginning in Genesis which fits really well with our reading of Grandpa's Box.

Stories of Faith: Grandpa's Box is a delightful story written as an ongoing conversation between Grandpa and his grand kids, Marc and Amy. Everyday after school as the children help him in his junk to treasure shop He tells them the story of the Bible. Behind each story is the backdrop of the war between God and Satan and how we play a part in it. Marc is especially interested in battles so although he knows the bible stories he is fascinated by Grandpa's war analogies. The boys are loving this book and like Marc though they know the bible stories Grandpa's analogies and unique point of view brings up for them a new take on God and what He has done for us.

Last week we completed The Stories of the Pilgrims right on Thanksgiving day!

Math: We have completed our lessons which took us through the multiplication table, table by table and learning some patterns in each number table, and through out the table. We learned skip count songs for each of the numbers and we did all of the multiplication story problems in Ray's Primary Arithmetic several times over. So last week and this week we have been doing a new lesson rota. I began with introducing the boys to The Matrix, a tool I found over at Don Potter's website for getting the math table facts down quickly. Then we work a page or two in The Usborne Math Skills book called Multiplying and Dividing Puzzles.

The Matrix is a set up so the child works all of the math facts from 2X2 up to 12X12 as is done on the multiplication table however all the duplicate problems have been removed. So, 3X4 in the 3's table is not re introduced again as 4X3 in the 4's table. There are then 67 problems to complete. The table is filled in and timed. Once the boys have completed the table I mark down how long it took them to do it and how many out of 67 they did correctly. I post their best times and they try to beat themselves. Thus far the best time is 8.5 minutes with 2 mistakes (65/67). The goal is to do the problems until they come so easily that you simply are racing to write them down. This could get old day-in and day-out so in between doing the Matrix challenge I give them some fun math problems to play around with from the Usborne puzzle book.

Our rota is three days a week The Matrix, two day Usborne, then the next week it would change to three days a week Usborne two days a week The Matrix.

The mathematicians we read about on project day are Neils Henrik Abel and Ada Bryron Lovelace.

Ancient Greek History: We are still reading The Children's Plutarch by F. J. Gould and working on our paper mache' armor.

And we put a few things in or History notebook...

Armor of God pages. The one on the left was drawn by Nadene from Practical Pages.

Zak and TJ completing a map drill

Aesop's Copy work: I used to have to give out treats to get them to aim for making no cross outs or mistakes, however now that I have stopped doing that they still aim for it themselves and do their best in the coloring because it is good to do it even without the treat. TJ especially hates to make any mistakes and works very hard to get it right. Zak is wonderful at the handwriting but this year he has lost all interest in coloring or drawing etc. But my shinning example really is Max my oldest. Last year he was such a dawdler and I wondered just how I was going to deal with it and for how long because it really bugged me. However this year he is such a different student. It is plain he does not like some of the work I assign but he willingly makes himself get it done. In addition he has become my advocate as he encourages the other two to stop their whining and get with it. Those are his words not mine. :) "It takes less time if you just obey and do what she says," he tells Zak, "She'll make you do it later on your free time if you don't." They both shudder and get to work. I think their understanding and value of time has been the incentive to work it through. As they have grown older and have more ideas of their own they want to work on then their time is more valuable to them. Natural consequences have paid off no nagging needed!

Science/Birds: After reading all the way through The Tale of Jolly Robin by Arthur Scott Bailey we are reading Blacky the Crow by Thornton Burgess.

Nature Notebooks: 

After reading from A Pocket full of pinecones the boys headed outside to find something to draw. Max and TJ both found a lizard and TJ was so excited! "Mom it had yellow on its back see I drew that in!" I was so pleased. For the last few weeks when he looks for something to draw he comes back with the same leaf...but not this week.

On project day we made some bird feeders from old paper towel rolls, peanut butter and birdseed for the winter birds.

Language Arts: Our lesson in Primary Language Lessons was to memorize The Swing by Robert Louis Stevenson. We took four days to do this. Day one, orally go through the poem reciting the first stanza then the first and second etc until we are saying the whole poem altogether. Day two, the boys copied 1/2 of the poem and drew a picture. Day three, they copied the second 1/2 of the poem and drew a picture. The fourth and last day the boys orally recited separately the entire poem, then they recited it al together. It is so amazing how they memorize these verses so easily. And how adorable they sound as they do it.

Max's copy work.

Last week they wrote about what they would do on vacation. Here is Zak's composition and drawing.

Read-aloud before bed: Gentle Ben, On the Banks of Plum Creek.

Latin: Minimus dialogue and verbs and adjectives.

Art/Music: Drawing Lessons # 3-#8 in I Can Do all Things

TJ's Wally the worm in the garden, a lesson on forshortening

Max's drawing.

Zak's drawing

We began reading Chopin the Early Years by Opal Wheeler last week. I read from the book one day and then on the other day we listened to his music ( 99 most essential Chopin Masterpieces) and began to color a page from Opal Wheeler's book.

TJ's work in progress

Week Seven Wrap-up

Charlotte Mason says:

"I inferred that one of these, the desire for knowledge (curiosity) was the chief instrument of education; that this desire might be paralyzed or made powerless like an unused limb by encouraging other desires to intervene between a child and the knowledge proper for him; the desire for place, emulation; for prizes, avarice; for power, ambition; for praise, vanity, might be stumbling blocks to him...and eliminate that knowledge hunger, itself the quite sufficient incentive for education."Vol. 6 (towards a Philosophy of Education) chapter 3 

I have been reading through Towards a Philosophy of Education this past week and this idea stated above kept coming to me as I read on and after several times of reading it I began to think maybe I ought to address this issue in our homeschool.  I realized that treats, prizes, ambition and other things I have encourage have tainted the atmosphere of our lessons. I did it so the work would get done and so that the work would be done properly. I wanted to be positive and not penalize them but reward them for good behavior. It was the way I felt most able to manipulate the setting to reach the goals I had set for the lesson time. I haven't lost their hunger for knowledge, but I am losing some of the use of this "chief instrument" of education. Not completely, but the culprit is still there lurking and I now see it and I am praying about how to go about making changes. 

This realization has been helpful to me. I know what it is that I have been longing for. Also what I have ben sensing is missing in my lessons. I love to learn. I dreamed of learning things with my kids and basking in the inspiration of the ideas living books would bring us. I hoped they would catch the love I have for learning. They have to a large extent, but the discipline has gotten in the way or should I say the coercion to reach certain goals has gotten in the way. In my haste to reach such and such a place I have used methods of treats and prizes to get them to go along with me. In my readings of CM methods this week I have learned a better way. 

It is simple really.  I'll take the risk. I'll lay before them a feast of ideas rich and varied, in literary form which their minds love to receive. I'll step back and allow them to chew on it. I'll risk that in their  present place of acquiring knowledge they may miss something or they may see it in a false light such seeing the villain as a cool guy, but in the end I'll remain in the background risking they will eat what they need. That their hunger for knowledge will lead them. I'll rely on habits of obedience, attention and perfect execution to guide them on a straight path. By setting aside the prizes, the treats etc. I am counting on CM being right yet again and my boys will have a "sufficient (proper) incentive for education."

"This atrophy of the desire of knowledge is the penalty our scholars pay because we have chosen to make them work for inferior ends." (Vol. 6 chapter 5)

Bible: my dh is still reading through Acts.
Stories of Faith: Adventures of Missionary Heroism. We are reading about men who went to Africa.

Mathematics: We have reached X7 in the making of our Multiplication table. At this point I followed CM's ideas in a new way and began to show with manipulatives the why of each X7 fact. I didn't do this with the other tables because they already understood them and it would have been going over old territory and a bore.

"As each table is mastered examples involving its use and that of previous ones are given, always in the  nature of problems beginning with money questions as in addition and subtraction, and proceeding to the manipulation of pure number."

To accomplish this I simply had them use buttons to do 7X1, 7X2, .....7X12. Then I set up the Storm the Castle game and they answered story problems from Ray's Arithmetic starting form X4 on up to X7 and a little onto X8 to challenge and encourage them that they are ready for it. DOing this toke most fo the week.

We also read about a mathematician who did math while she slept.

Ancient History of Greece: We finished reading The Wanderings of Odysseus by Rosmary Sutcliff. So on the last day of the week I read aloud to them part one from Padraic Colum's The Adventures of Odysseus and the Tale of Troy as it is such a well written account of the poem and it ties the two stories we have read nicely together thus making for a interesting review. While I read the boys colored a small map tracking the trail made by Odysseus on his adventures. Next they glued it to a pocket and into their History notebook. Next week I plan to give them story board cards from part two of the book to color and put in order after they hear the reading of it. The cards will go into the pocket with the map of the adventure on the outside. Below is TJ's map/pocket.

Audio of The Adventures of Odysseus and the Tale of Troy.

We also began map drill adding Troy and Ithaka to a map of Greece.

Aesops Copywork: Five more fables colored and copied.

Birds: We are still reading through the Tale of Turkey Proudfoot by Arthur Scott Bailey. and at the end of the week I introduced the boys to the parts of the bird for use in identifying birds from their field guide books. I simply copied the bird parts picture onto bright green paper. Then made a second copy in white. Next I cut it apart so they would need to piece it back together and discover the names of the parts of the bird. They also got out their field guides and spent a while looking at all the birds in it and remembering birds we have read about or seen. They marked the birds in the book they knew. It was clear watching them that this activity was a hit.

Nature Notebooks:  With just a jar and some freedom to be outside the boys easily found some foliage and a specimen to draw. They brought in their bug jars and drew them onto this fun mason jar template. Below are examples of TJ's and Max's drawings.

Language Arts:  Much of the week was spent mastering a few dictation sentences using the three forms of two, too, and to. They already understood the use of the three kinds of two but they had forgotten how to do dictation and it took a few times to copy the sentences before they were able to remember them correctly.

Reading Practice:  The boys are continuing to read two pages a day from the Elson Reader and they are getting better and better. I can't wait for the day when they feel two pages are so easy they volunteer to read more. Though I am looking forward to this day I am not in a rush. I am happy to see the good work they do each day with a happy and willing heart.

The cat book marks I found last week inspired me to give the boys a gift of a book I know they can read on their own. I printed out book plates for the front covers and pasted them in, and gave each one a book with  a bookmark in it. Zak was eager to get going and read 4 of the stories out loud to me through out the afternoon and evening. TJ read two and Max read none out loud to me but I saw him reading it by the light of his flashlight at bedtime. He gave me a hug the next day and thanked me for the book. Yeah!!!! a book of their own they can read. 

Latin: This week we had a new dialogue from our Minimus text book to translate and read aloud. The first day we translated what we could from the clues given to us by the pictures and words we already knew.  Then on the second day we listened to the dialogue and tried to read it aloud. Then on the third and fourth day we did the same but we also worked on getting a good solid understanding of all the words by tranlsting a few more words each day that we did not get on day one. On the fifth day we read aloud and tranlated each sentence.

Artist Study of Paul Klee: We did very little in our artist study this week for the lessons I had panned were foiled by a color printer that prints fuzzy images. We were going to add 12 paintings of Paul Klee into our Gallery notebooks. What we did accomplish was to create a cover for the gallery notebooks using old Montessori cards from last years study of some impressionist artists.

Composer Study: In three increments of 1/2 hour each we watched the BBC production of the nutcracker ballet from my computer using you-tube. The boys loved it!

...and lest I finish this post without citing this quote I'll do it now for it encouraged me deeply. It is from the SCM blog.

Hints to Teachers:

"Do not forget that the education of the child's mind is of infinitely more importance than the acquirements of reading and writing; these may be put off for years without injury to the child's career, but the cultivation of reason, imagination, observation and sympathy, cannot be put off without injury to its moral and intellectual development. Therefore, do not trouble yourself at all about the child's progress, but be very careful of its growth. Never treat its mistakes as faults, nor scold it for forgetting, but if it appears dull or inattentive revise your own method and redouble your efforts to interest it. Haphazard methods, hurry and worry, are the worst enemies of progress, but give the child a logical method and sympathetic attention, and it cannot fail to make as much progress as its intelligence is capable of."

The Artist Study Helper: Henri Matisse

This last week I set out to put together some montesorri cards for all the post-impressionist artists and some of the modern artist for our artist study next year and I ended up creating The Artist Study Helper for Henri Matisse instead. I am sooo excited about it, and I hope to be able to make Artist Study Helpers for all of the impressionist artists that I have made Montesorri cards before. Now to just get some time....(smile).

The Artist Study Helper is a resource packet of tools and ideas to help you as you study a specific artist, this one is on henri Matisse. At the front of the e-book I have included some ideas for using these materials and a sample seven week plan for implementing some of the resources. There is so much in this little e-book you could spend a whole year on it, or you can just choose one or two activities you enjoy and do those. Whatever you do your children will love looking at this colorful artist.

Come have a peek inside...

There are twelve montesorri cards to use for playing concentration or go fish or whatever creative ways you use them.

There are notbook pages to be filled in. For one of the pages I have made small replicas of the art work so you can print, cut and glue them to the bottom of your Artist bio sheet. Using these same replicas you can add it to the page at the top and your copy of that painting below it. There are also pages for each of the twelve paintings chosen for your student to write about the work of art.

There is a short biography of Henri Matisse you can display on your wall or in your notebook.

There are five coloring pages for you to color.

There are three art lessons. One designed so you too can draw with your scissors like Matisse.

There are six large pictures which can be used for picture study. I also included instructions for how to do a picture study and a list of books introducing Herni Matisse for children that can  be checked out of the library or bought.

The Artist Helper: Henri Matisse and The Artist Helper: Vincent Van Gogh are now available at Currclick.

Yeah! They Are Reading!

Today, Zak and I had a giggle over the name of the fox in his story, “foxy woxy.” Every time he read it he jabbed me in the side with his elbow and giggled. I giggled too. Mostly I am giggling because Zak is reading, all my boys are reading and I am thrilled. I am also relieved. I have struggled with this subject since we began working on it two years ago. It is so nice to finally be over the hump. Now we are giggling and enjoying stories together. They don’t read perfectly, but that is part of the charm of it. There is something so precious in hearing the emerging reader sounding out words and getting a funny sort of rhythm to the telling. One of my boys shouts. Why, I don’t know, but it seems to help him keep on task. I am not complaining only reminding him he doesn’t have to shout when he reads.

My plan this year was to saturate them with little language lessons through out the time we ‘do school’ in the mornings. I had four different things I did on top of narration, and copywork. We did a lot of language arts each day. As we have been doing these I noticed that some of the lessons were really working, and some were not. So I have adjusted the plan.

Here is the old plan:

• Read a story from the Elson reader each day. Narrate the story they read.

• Write down and review on phonic rule each day.

• Two times a week do a lesson from Reading Reflex at the reading level.

• Two times a week do a reading lesson from Reading Made Easy, with worksheets from the activity book.

• Do copy work at least once each day in other subjects like history, music, or astronomy.

Here is the new plan:

• Read a story from the Elson reader each day. Narrate the story they read.

• Write down and review one phonic rule each day.

• Do one lessons worth of worksheets from the reading Made Easy activity book each day. That is about three to four simple worksheets.

• Do copy work at least once each day in other subjects like history, music, or astronomy.

If you look at the new plan you will have noticed we dropped the formal reading lessons from RME and RR. Those were the things I added because I was nervous they would have a few gaps in their learning if I did not do them. The things I kept the boys all WANTED to do and are using them to teach themselves what they need to know to read.

My oldest son wanted to do the phonics rules, so last year when he told me this I created the way we would do this, and it is working great. I posted two sheets one for the steps to do to complete the review sheet, and another sheet with the steps to write down the phonics rule for that day. They can do this lesson by themselves. Once they are finished the rule card and the review sheet, I check their work and they redo it if it did not meet the standard I have prescribed. It took only a few sloppy endeavors for them to realize it was more work to do it hastily than to do it right. :)

They all adored the worksheets so we kept those and copywork, well it is required by mom still.

My twins wanted to read through the Elson readers, so all three boys are doing just that. I was reluctant to do this at first because I thought they would not have enough words to be able to read it, and then they would be discouraged. But, they were determined and away they went. I had planned to do JUST the primary book this year, reading two or three times a week. And I had planned to use a few of the teacher’s guide activities on the days we did not read, but I soon saw that they needed to read every day and not to bother them with the teacher’s book stuff at all. They read every day and made quick time through the primary book and went on to book one. The stories are still simple but longer. They are just about to finish it, we begin book two next week. I am so proud of them!

I am beginning to see my boys owning their learning process. What fun that is! To see them chose materials for their reading lesson last year which will to get them to the goal of learning to read and then to watch them using those materials to do it is wonderful. It is a pleasure to see them succeeding and to know I had very little to do with it. Truly, I have been more like the parent steadying the bike as the child is learning to ride it. They are doing the work to ride, I am simply keeping them up until they do it. Now I watch as they are riding on down the block under the large elm trees soaring away into a whole new world.

Peter and Polly

Now available over at Currclick.

Peter and Polly in Winter is a wonderful story written by Rose Lucia. It is one of the treasures I have found amongst the public domain books. The stories are about a little boy and a little girl as they live their lives on a small farm with their family and friends during the winter season. There are three other volumes, Peter and Pollly in the Spring, P and P in the Summer, and P and P in the Autumn. The stories as wholesome and winsome. When I read the first few chapters it dawned on me how cleverly they fit with Charlotte Mason's idea of nature study. I was intrigued. Could this little reader be helpful in nature study as well as reading practice, narration practice and copywork? Turns out it is not too bad. Might even work in the place of life skills too!

In this e-book you will find:

A cover page which can be printed on card stock for a durable start to your copywork book or your nature notebook...or both!

A Map of Peter and Polly’s village.

A 35 reading lessons for emerging readers. The original books were not graded but I would guess it is at the 2nd or 3rd grade level.

At the end of each reading lesson you will find:

Narration prompts. I have found that the best way to initiate narration practice for the new narrator is with material that the narrator has read for himself.

Copywork exercises. I have provided one sentence from the reading lesson for beginning writers using the primary lines and two or three sentences for those using regular lines. (There are blank pages at the end of the book if you want to make your own or do more work on this.)

A nature study prompt or activity that follows the thread of the story. (There are notebook pages at the end of the book if you don’t have a nature journal that you are already using)

A coloring page

I hope to be able to complete the whole series this year so that if we can follow Peter and Plloy through the seasons learning our CM langauge arts skills and doing some nature study and some life skills in the process.